This event will be online on YouTube & in-person. The speaker & live stream starts at 7:30 pm ET. In-person attendees may arrive as early as 7 pm ET.

Important note

Google Maps currently incorrectly pins the location around the corner on Crosby Street. The entrance is not on Crosby. The entrance is on Spring Street, inside the Marc Jacobs International building. It is roughly halfway between Crosby & Lafayette, almost directly across Spring Street from the Chipotle restaurant.

Description

From inaccessible PDFs to fragmented mobile platforms, digital accessibility today feels like navigating a labyrinth. In this dual-perspective session, Jason Tan & Michael Bervell explore the thorniest challenges in both mobile & web accessibility -- & how emerging AI techniques, automation strategies, & platform shifts are changing whats possible.

They begin with mobile: an arena full of friction, from the lack of concrete native accessibility standards to tooling fragmentation across iOS, Android, React Native, & Flutter. Through mythological analogies & practical examples, well unpack what makes mobile accessibility so uniquely hard -- & what an ideal tooling ecosystem might look like.

Then they transition to the web, where AI is making significant strides. They'll show how LLMs & human-in-the-loop design are already streamlining accessibility tasks like alt text generation, PDF remediation, & context-aware WCAG compliance. Along the way, well share insights from cutting-edge studies on how AI boosts productivity, reduces burnout, & supports non-experts in making meaningful contributions to accessibility.

You will leave with:

• A deep understanding of the Four Horsemen of mobile accessibility complexity.


• A sense of whats newly possible (and not yet possible) in AI-assisted accessibility workflows.


• Tangible practices for integrating automation & assistive AI into your own dev or audit workflows.

This session is for accessibility professionals, developers, & tech leads who want to level up their impact -- & have a little fun doing it.

Bring your questions. Bring your war stories. Join us for a deeply technical (and hopefully mythically entertaining) exploration into whats next for digital accessibility -- on both mobile & web.

Presenter bios

Jason Tan is the co-founder & CTO of TestParty, a startup automating digital accessibility testing across platforms. Jason studied Computer Science, Economics, & Latin at Princeton, & previously worked as an iOS engineer at Twitch, where he encountered accessibility challenges during a live lawsuit.

At TestParty, he brings a uniquely technical & humanistic lens to mobile & web accessibility. Jason is passionate about building developer-first tools that don't just detect problems -- but help fix them.

Michael Bervell is the CEO & co-founder of TestParty, an AI-powered digital accessibility platform that automates WCAG remediation across web & mobile. He previously consulted on accessibility for Google & the United Nations & was awarded an NSF SBIR grant for advancing automated compliance technologies.

A published author & Harvard graduate, Michael's work sits at the intersection of AI, education, & inclusion. Hes passionate about building tools that make the internet equitable for everyone.

Accessibility

The presentation will have human captions [CC], not automatic captions. There will be an ASL interpreter.

For Aira Visual Interpreter access for the Blind & Low Vision community, download the Aira Explorer app on the Apple App Store or Google Play. For access in the physical space, the A11yNYC geofence should apply automatically.

To access the online webinar for audio description, use the A11yNYC Access Offer to call, or simply inform your Visual Interpreter that you'd like that offer applied when you connect.

Please let us know about any other accessibility requirements two weeks before the event.

Livestream

View on YouTube

Provided by Internet Society Accessibility SIG.

Location details

The event is on the 4th floor. Everyone must be accompanied to the event on the 4th floor. Because everyone needs to be escorted, please arrive early or on time. When you enter the ground floor, a representative from A11yNYC will be there to provide elevator access.

Attendees can enter on the third floor & go up the staircase, or request accommodation to go directly to the 4th floor. Thanks to Ben Ogilvie for making this possible! Let us know if you're coming!

The building is near several transit stops:

6 train

• Spring Street (non-accessible stop): 100 feet


• Canal Street (accessible stop): 0.4 miles

NQRW trains

• Prince Street (non-accessible stop): 0.2 miles


• Canal Street (accessible stop): 0.3 miles

M1 / M55 Bus lines

• Broadway/Spring Street stop: 500 feet

Cabs & rideshares can let passengers out right near the building entrance

Accreditation

All A11yNYC meetups are pre-approved for IAAP Continuing Accessibility Education Credits (CAEC).

Sponsors

Thanks to AKQA, Deque, Evinced, Equal Entry, & Fable for sponsoring. Want to be a sponsor? Contact meryl@equalentry.com